14 Replies - 1796 Views - Last Post: 30 June 2010 - 02:27 PM

BP and the oil spill

Posted 26 June 2010 - 12:14 AM

I don't know about the rest of you, but i've been following this since it happened. It's very sad to see everything that has happened to all the animals there, and the way it has affected everyone who lives off of fishing. So who has been watching it?

I've also started a petition to get 1 million votes to stop BP from working in the US, as they obviously can't follow strict protocols =)

Replies To: BP and the oil spill

Re: BP and the oil spill

Posted 26 June 2010 - 12:30 AM

What really gets me is there is a company in Arizona that demonstrated it's "Smart Sponge" foam product.
The material only bonds to petroleum products, meaning you can pump a bunch of oil/water mix through it as a filter and the output is everything other than the oil. After that the petroleum bonded foam can be burned to still obtain some useful energy... say in an industrial furnace, smelter etc.

The demo on the news had the guy take a glass of bottled water and pour in about an equal amount of motor oil... shake the entire mess to fully diffuse the oil... pour it through cyclider of "Smart Sponge" bits, then drink the water that came out the the other end. The reporter tried the same output water and was stunned it tasted like filtered drinking water.

When the reporter asked "Why aren't you deploying this in the gulf?" the company representative said they have offered and demo'd it for the government but the entire process was mired down in bearacracy and red-tape... mostly about... get this... the environmental impact of using an untested substance.

Yah.. My ass. The senators have their wallets tied to the government contracted clean-up companies. they all know they will be receiving checks for years over this. If the mess were cleaned up in a month they would loose millions in contract awarding kickbacks.

then I think... If this one Smart Sponge product is stuck in this... how many other working solutions are also not making to the press in a large scale? If you take the 20 partial solutions that have probably been offered and use them all, and combine all the partial results you might get a complete result.

Re: BP and the oil spill

Posted 26 June 2010 - 12:50 AM

My 2009 Dodge Ram is flexfuel (e-85 or normal unleaded).
I could run 100% gas, but why?
I like knowing 85% of my fuel dollars don't go to OPEC.
The mpg is slightly lower, but the cost per gallon is lower. The cost per mile is so close to the same that it doesn't matter. Even if it did... I'm one of those crazy patriots that would spend $10 a gallon if I could be guaranteed that it went 100% to America-only producers.

Re: BP and the oil spill

Posted 26 June 2010 - 04:56 AM

JBrace1990, on 26 June 2010 - 06:14 AM, said:

I don't know about the rest of you, but i've been following this since it happened. It's very sad to see everything that has happened to all the animals there, and the way it has affected everyone who lives off of fishing. So who has been watching it?

I've also started a petition to get 1 million votes to stop BP from working in the US, as they obviously can't follow strict protocols =)

I'd suggest if you want to take this sort of action you don't bother with a petition like that. It's the equivalent of "can we get a million people who like dolphins" on facebook.

It's not that BP should leave America. It's that standards IN GENERAL should be stated, set and enforced to everybody. There are plenty of other companies who have come very close to or even experienced catastrophic disasters in environmental and other areas. I agree it's terrible; apply pressure to your government (and others around the world) to discourage dangerous practises to begin with.

Re: BP and the oil spill

Posted 29 June 2010 - 04:02 PM

I agree that you need to look at this as a learning lesson but I don't think we're the only ones going "damn this sucks" since BP could lose it's shirt over this mistake.

If you were running a fuel company and one of the biggest in the business screwed up huge while drilling for oil and eliminated themselves, you probably wouldn't be keen to drill for oil after that.. ?

What I don't get is why they can build massive concrete rings and lower them down over the pipe, stacking them as they go, building the first few at an angle to create a level platform for the rest. As they build the stack the oil flow will get trapped inside. As soon as they get above the surface the concrete rings would hold almost pure crude, as it floats? At that point they could add rings with valves and such to siphon off the oil?

They might have to add sealant to the outside of the rings to get a seal, but once they did they could even try pumping it out until it dries up.. At that point they could fill it with concrete and we'll have a huge memorial to the stupidity of people.. ?

Re: BP and the oil spill

I agree that you need to look at this as a learning lesson but I don't think we're the only ones going "damn this sucks" since BP could lose it's shirt over this mistake.

If you were running a fuel company and one of the biggest in the business screwed up huge while drilling for oil and eliminated themselves, you probably wouldn't be keen to drill for oil after that.. ?

What I don't get is why they can build massive concrete rings and lower them down over the pipe, stacking them as they go, building the first few at an angle to create a level platform for the rest. As they build the stack the oil flow will get trapped inside. As soon as they get above the surface the concrete rings would hold almost pure crude, as it floats? At that point they could add rings with valves and such to siphon off the oil?

They might have to add sealant to the outside of the rings to get a seal, but once they did they could even try pumping it out until it dries up.. At that point they could fill it with concrete and we'll have a huge memorial to the stupidity of people.. ?

Placing a tube over the existing oil well would channel the oil strait up to the surface, But oil floats on water anyway. Plus the tube would have to be sealed at the oceans floor before you could seal off the tube with a valve. Just putting a concrete ring on the ocean floor would not seal the tube.

From the drawings that I've seen the Casing is a few thousand feet long and the casing is what keeps the well from leaking (from the ocean floor). That whole casing is underground, thousands of feet under ground.

I did wonder why they have to shut it off? Why can't they just run a new riser pipe with a dome on the end and just suck up the crude and load it onto tanker ships..

This post has been edited by calvinthedestroyer: 30 June 2010 - 02:30 PM